Law of the sea by dark of night
By Paul M. Weyrich
web posted March 8, 2004
A veteran Hill staffer remarked to me last week that for the first
time since the 2002 elections she misses Senator Jesse Helms
(R-NC). Helms finished his Senate career as Ranking Member
of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, after having been
chairman for several terms.
The new Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee is Sen.
Dick Lugar (R-IN), a veteran of 28 years in the Senate. Lugar
has waited a long time to become Chairman. Following the 1986
elections he attempted to get his colleagues to dump Helms, who
had shifted from being Chairman of the Agriculture Committee to
Ranking Member of the Foreign Relations Committee. Helms
had long wanted to be Chairman of Foreign Relations. But in the
1984 campaign he promised he would stay as Chairman of the
Agriculture Committee, since that position was helpful to
tobacco and other farmers in North Carolina. He kept his
promise for the next Congressional term but in the1986 elections
Republicans lost control of the Senate, so Helms saw his
opportunity to move. His seniority permitted him to move to
Foreign Relations, but Republicans had devalued seniority a bit
by permitting Senators to challenge a Chairmanship, or in this
case, Ranking Member. Lugar, who was four years junior to
Helms, made that challenge but he lost badly. Even though the
Foreign Relations Committee had never had a strong
conservative as Ranking Member, Senators still respected
seniority and Helms was installed. Then after eight years in that
position, Republicans regained control of the Senate in the 1994
elections. Helms became Chairman all the way through 2001
when Senator Jefford's change of party made Helms the Ranking
Member again. Had Helms run for another term and won, even
though Republicans again became the Majority Party, he could
not have continued as Chairman of Foreign Relations since new
rules put term limits on Committee Chairmanships.
So, Lugar finally got the Chairmanship he prized. Although Lugar
has a fairly strong conservative voting record, it was always
understood that he was no Jesse Helms. Indeed Lugar's 1986
challenge of Helms was based on what was perceived as
concern about Helms' conservatism. Surprisingly, Helms got
along well with his Democrat colleagues. First there was Sen.
Claiborne Pell (D-RI) and then later Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE).
Together they forged a bi-partisan approach to foreign policy.
But one thing Helms did was to sit on various treaties, which
various Presidents had agreed to, but had never been ratified by
the U.S. Senate.
The reason this veteran Hill staff member said she missed Helms
was because Lugar has revived the Law of the Sea Treaty and
got it passed out of committee. This treaty had been bottled up
since early in the Reagan Administration when the President
made it clear he did not support it.
Something has happened to Lugar in this episode because the
way he behaved regarding this treaty is NOT vintage Lugar. He
would not let real opponents of the treaty testify against it. He
passed it without warning in what we call in the Senate, "a
Midnight-style raid." He prevented other Senators on the Armed
Services and Intelligence Committees from seeing the whole
treaty.
Lugar, who began his long political career as Mayor of
Indianapolis (in the late 1960's President Richard Nixon called
him his favorite Mayor), came to the Senate in the 1976 election.
He soon developed a reputation for thoughtful approaches to
problems. While always a globalist on international questions,
Lugar has been very conservative on social issues and was one
of the few Republicans who was willing to actually cut programs
when Ronald Reagan was elected President. His
evenhandedness on very emotional and highly controversial
issues is legendary.
Thus there has to be an out-of-the-box explanation for Lugar's
behavior on the Law of the Sea Treaty, which is a huge
giveaway of American sovereignty, and which sets up a system
to transfer wealth from the United States to places that don't
deserve it. In addition, this treaty is a real step toward global
government, giving decisions on matters of concern to America -
to The Hague.
It is not like Lugar to want to pass something like this with an
iron hand. First, because Indiana is a very conservative state
when it comes to issues such as this. Second, because this
undoes his long-established reputation for fairness and
evenhandedness. Lugar ran for President briefly in 1996. His
campaign was short lived. At his age, he is not likely to try that
again.
So what is he angling for with this move which is bound to be
unpopular back home and which may not even sit well with
George Bush?
Well, John Kerry has at least an even chance to be elected
President. If some polls are right, he has a better than even
chance. No doubt Lugar has given up his ambitions to be
President, but the next best thing for a globalist such as Lugar
would be to be Secretary of State. Now, Senator Kerry has
already suggested that he might bring Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)
into his Administration if elected to the Presidency, so why not
Lugar? About the only thing that could explain Lugar's behavior
is that he is angling for Secretary of State in a Kerry
Administration.
Of course, Lugar's longtime associate and former Chief of Staff,
Mitch Daniels, is running for Governor of Indiana. Daniels
thought he would be running in an open seat. But the incumbent
Governor up and died. And the Lt. Governor, who then became
Governor, said he was retiring too. Apparently, however, he
liked living in the Governor's mansion. He now is running for
election as the incumbent. If Kerry wins, and a Democrat were
Governor of Indiana, a Lugar appointment as Secretary of State
would also put another Democrat in the U.S. Senate. That might
even switch party control, which would be in Kerry's interest.
That theory may be wrong, but whatever accounts for Lugar's
sudden rash of unfairness, the Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist,
who schedules legislation for a vote, must keep the Law of the
Sea Treaty from coming to a vote.
Perhaps if Sen. Frist delivers a bit of reality to the Chairman of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he will return to his
penchant for fairness and decency. The old Lugar was certainly
preferable to the new one.
Paul M. Weyrich is Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress
Foundation (http://www.freecongress.org/).
Enter Stage Right -- http://www.enterstageright.com